Toothless Guy (after seeing an Asian guy try to sit down in a seat reserved for some lady) to dealer at Horseshoe, Tunica: Must be nice that Orientals don't have to abide by rules in the poker room.Me (sitting next to him): I LOVE IT! (A few minutes later) Me to table: My favorite rule at the poker room is the one that says there are no rules for Orientals. ... And the rule that allows check and raise. (Later, upon seeing a suckout) Toothless Guy: You get that kind of luck only when you die. We're back in the ATL. The trip was wonderful. We found great characters, like Old Sham (an old guy who had a massive mountain of chips at the Horseshoe's $4/8, just like Sham did. He plays a tight, predictable game like Sham, even sat in Seat 10 -- which I'll forever call the "Sham Seat"). Old Sham is Sham in the future. Mark points out that Old Sham plays a lot looser than Sham does now and I say that Old Sham has learned a thing or two about the game after all those years. There was also Fat Moneymaker -- a big balloon of a guy who had a passing resemblance to the 2003 WSOP main event champion, even down to the Oakley sunglasses that he wore at the $4/8 table. He had a real squeaky, hard to understand voice and wrapped up his bottles of free Bud Light in a camo bottle insulater. I'm down a little bit, possibly $60 or $70, and that's just a push with a $5K bankroll. I'm happy especially because starting Friday morning I was down a little more than $200 and was resigned to whatever fate would happen for the trip. One thing was I really didn't care. It means nothing to be down when you win a grand in two days on casino bonuses. The free flight made it a freeroll. But something strange happened. I had a nice run on Friday playing $4/8 at the Horseshoe and $3/6 at Gold Strike. It never happens like this -- traditionally on the afternoon that I have to fly out, I'm usually good for bleeding $40 or $50 more in chips. I ended up at tables where people really didn't know how to play AND AND AND actually got cards. But this I think was the difference from Wednesday and Thursday. "This is the Gold Strike that I remember," I tell Mark in the afternoon at the 'Strike when I'm sitting in between a guy who's never played poker before ("He watches that TV poker all the time," his wife confides to me as I make a strange nodding/scared movement like Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and an older guy who is just bleeding out all of his chips to me. A couple hours left before we have to drive to the Memphis airport, Mark and I play $5 blackjack at the 'Shoe. They have live music going, Steve Miller covers, Fleetwood Mac. I build up a decent amount of chips, enough to make me up $45 or so in blackjack for the trip. I am VERY happy about that. And a little silly. This conversation just a little while later after I cashout and watch Mark and some random guy suffer at the table: Blackjack dealer: What do you do for a living?Me: I'm the cooler. The casino can take a beating when the $5 tables get hot. That's what I'm here for. The best thing about blackjack is it's the perfect thing to do when you're waiting for your poker room seat to open up. I am a little embarrassed still over buying in chips for a poker game with the black $100 chips the blackjack tables color you up with. You trade in those chips and people know you're one of those degenerate gamblers. Anyway, glad to be back. The four trips -- Tunica/Las Vegas/Chicago/Tunica have made me a little traveled out right now and I'll be happy to stay put for a little while.

Source: Poker Cats